By Lin Noueihed | Reuters | Jul. 2, 2008
The United States will not allow Iran to block the Gulf, which carries crude from the world's largest oil exporting region, and would defend its ships in the waterway, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said on Wednesday.

By Robert Parry | Consortium News | Jun. 30, 2008
As historians ponder George W. Bush’s disastrous presidency, they may wonder how Republicans perfected a propaganda system that could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs.

BBC | Jun. 30, 2008
An Iranian man has been sentenced to death for spying for Israel, according to reports from Tehran. Ali Ashtari was found guilty of sending "sensitive information on military, defence and research centres" to Iran's arch foe in the region, reports say.

By Margaret Griffis | AntiWar.com | Jun. 26, 2008
A pair of significant bombings shook Iraq today and underscored how tenuous the security gains made in the last few months actually are. Three U.S. Marines were among the dead in the attack in Karma. At least 48 Iraqis were killed and 119 more were wounded across the country as well.

Press.tv | Jun. 25, 2008
The US military has constructed four advanced bases 20 miles from Iraq's border with Iran, a senior Iraqi police officer has announced. The bases, equipped with missile launch pads, have been set up over the past four months on the Iraq-Iran border; Iraqi al-Noor newspaper quoted the official as saying.

By Eric Hundman | foreignpolicy.com | Jun. 25, 2008
Last Saturday, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei sat for an Arabic-language interview on the al-Arabiya network. During a discussion about Iran, ElBaradei was asked how much time the country would need to "produce" a nuclear weapon. "It would need at least six months to one year," he replied.

By Richard Lardner | The Huffington Post | Jun. 23, 2008
The Army's march to overhaul its tarnished contracting system has been slowed by an unlikely foe: the White House. The Office of Management and Budget, President Bush's administrative arm, has shot down a service plan to add five active-duty generals who would oversee purchasing and monitor contractor performance.

By Ray McGovern | Anti-war.com | Jun. 23, 2008
Unlike the attack on Iraq five years ago, to deal with Iran there need be no massing of troops. And, with the propaganda buildup already well under way, there need be little, if any, forewarning before shock and awe and pox – in the form of air and missile attacks – begin.

By Chris Wilson | Slate | Jun. 18, 2008
The notorious A.Q. Khan smuggling ring had its hands on the design for a sophisticated and compact nuclear weapon, according to a new report from a former U.N. arms inspector. In 2006, electronic blueprints for the device were discovered on hard drives in several countries. What does a nuclear weapon blueprint look like?

By Margaret Griffis | AntiWar.com | Jun. 17, 2008
At least 75 Iraqis were killed and 120 more were wounded in a spate of bombings and other attacks. The heaviest toll occurred at a Baghdad bus stop around dinnertime. No Coalition deaths were reported today. Meanwhile, Turkey claimed to have stopped a force of PKK rebels from entering the country via northern Iraq.

ABC News | Jun. 17, 2008
Mentally distressed veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are being recruited for government tests on pharmaceutical drugs linked to suicide and other violent side effects, an investigation by ABC News and "The Washington Times" has found.

By Anne Casselman | Discover.com | Jun. 12, 2008
Four-and-a-half inch aircraft are providing a bird's-eye view of Iraq. Big, unmanned spy planes, like the Predators flying over Iraq, have plenty of problems. For starters, they are expensive to build and operate. More important, some can be relatively easy to spot. Shrinking such planes so that they weigh less than two ounces would result in the perfect vehicle to get a bird’s-eye view of the terrain.

AP | Jun. 13, 2008
Taliban militants attacked the main prison in southern Afghanistan late Friday, exploding a car bomb at the main gate in a multi-pronged assault that freed hundreds of militant prisoners, officials said.

Tom Coghlan | Sydney Morning Herald | Jun. 16, 2008
The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, yesterday threatened to attack Taliban insurgents on Pakistani soil, saying his war-torn country had a right to do so out of "self-defence".